How Much Does a Responsible Person (RP) Cost

A shop owner importing LED lights and small accessories from China gets an offer from a supplier: "We'll sort you out an EU Responsible Person for 90 euro a month per product." Sounds reasonable, until you work out that with 200 SKUs that's 18,000 euro a month. The question "how much does a Responsible Person (RP) cost" doesn't have a single answer, because the billing model, the scope of the service, and the number of products drastically change the sum. This article breaks the costs down into their component parts, based on the requirements of the GPSR (EU) 2023/988 regulation in force since 13 December 2024.

Why the RP generates a cost at all

GPSR requires that every consumer product sold in the EU have an entity established in the Union that is responsible for its safety, stores the technical documentation for 10 years, and cooperates with market surveillance authorities. A non-EU seller (from China, the UK, the US) cannot fulfil this role themselves, so they must buy it as a service or appoint their own importer. The cost stems from the legal liability the RP takes on, as well as from the work involved in verifying documents.

RP billing models

Three basic pricing models for the RP service operate on the market:

• Per product (per SKU) — a fixed annual or monthly fee for each individual product. Simple, but expensive with a broad product range.
• Annual flat fee — a single fee covering the entire catalogue up to a specified SKU limit.
• Own importer model — the seller sets up or uses an EU entity that is both the importer and the RP; the cost is mainly administrative overhead, not a fee for an external service.

Indicative price ranges

The amounts below are typical market ranges for 2026. Treat them as a point of reference, not a price list.

Model	Indicative cost	Who it suits
Per SKU (external service)	approx. 50–150 EUR / product / year	Narrow range, a handful to a dozen or so products
Annual flat fee for the catalogue	approx. 800–3000 EUR / year	Several dozen SKUs in one category
Own importer in the EU	set-up cost + accounting overheads	Large, steady sales volume
Technical documentation (one-off)	depends on the product category	Every product, regardless of RP model

Hidden costs that are easy to forget

The RP fee itself is only part of the bill. To get the full cost of GPSR compliance you need to add:

• preparing technical documentation and a risk assessment for each product,
• translating instructions and warnings into Polish (and other languages of the countries of sale),
• redesigning labels and packaging so they include RP details,
• any tests and compliance checks for products covered by additional directives (e.g. toys, electronics),
• updating listings in platform panels.

A sample calculation for three scenarios

To move the numbers out of the abstract, let's walk through three typical seller situations. Seller A has 8 products in one category and sells seasonally. For them, the per-SKU model is acceptable, because with a small number of products the total RP service cost stays low, and they don't need to get involved in running their own importer. Seller B has 60 SKUs and sells year-round on two platforms. The per-SKU model starts getting expensive, so an annual flat fee for the whole catalogue pays off. Seller C runs a steady, high volume with 400 products across four markets. For them, the most rational option is having their own importer in the EU, because the cost of maintaining it is spread across a large turnover and gives full control over the documentation.

The conclusion is simple: the unit cost of compliance falls as scale increases, as long as you match the billing model to the number of products. The same product can cost tens of euro a year to maintain under a flat-fee model, and many times more if it wrongly stays on a per-SKU model with a large catalogue.

When your own importer pays off more

The per-SKU model is convenient to start with, but scales poorly. The simple rule: the more products and the higher the steady volume, the more it pays to have your own importer in the EU or a flat fee for the whole catalogue. A seller with 300 products will pay many times more under the per-SKU model than under a flat fee, even though the scope of RP responsibility is identical.

We explain the basics of the RP role in the article RP for a non-EU seller — responsibilities, and the impact of multichannel selling on costs in Multichannel selling and GPSR — one set of documentation.

The cost of non-compliance

When analysing RP spending, it's easy to forget the other side of the equation: the cost of non-compliance. Lacking an RP means blocked listings on platforms, and therefore a direct loss of revenue, often higher than the annual cost of the RP service. On top of that comes the risk of administrative penalties from surveillance authorities, and the cost of a possible product withdrawal if it turns out to be unsafe. In this light, the RP fee is a form of insurance and a condition for running your sales, not just an additional expense. Many sellers who put off setting up an RP have suffered greater losses from blocked listings than the annual cost of compliance would have been.

How to reduce the cost legally

A few practical ways to limit spending without breaching GPSR:

• consolidate your product range and choose a flat fee instead of paying per SKU,
• prepare the technical documentation once and reuse it for variants of the same product,
• consider working with a single EU importer for the whole catalogue,
• use ready-made documentation and label templates instead of ordering everything from scratch.

Frequently asked questions

Is the RP cost a one-off or recurring?

Recurring. The RP is responsible for the product for as long as it's on the market, and stores the documentation for 10 years, which is why the service is usually billed annually or monthly.

Can I add the RP cost to the product price?

Yes, that's normal practice. The cost of compliance is spread across the sale price, just like any other operating cost.

Is a cheap RP service for a few euro a month safe?

Be careful. A very low price often means the RP isn't genuinely verifying the technical documentation. In the event of an inspection, it's the seller who bears the consequences, so it's worth checking exactly what the service covers.

Does the RP cost depend on the product category?

Indirectly, yes. Products covered by additional regulations (toys, electronics) require more extensive documentation, which raises the cost of preparing it, although the fee for the RP role itself tends to be similar.